Star witness makes pleas for Degorski

A month after her testimony helped convict James Degorski for the Brown's Chicken massacre, a longtime friend returned to the witness stand in a bid to save his life at his sentencing hearing.

"I don't believe he could have ever committed a crime so heinous," said Eileen Bakalla, testifying as a defense witness this time. "He was the giver. He was the one who took care of people. He was a lover, not a fighter."

The Cook County jury that convicted Degorski last week in the 1993 murders of seven workers at the Brown's Chicken restaurant in Palatine has one more decision to make: whether he should be sentenced to the death penalty.

His accomplice, Juan Luna, was sentenced to life in prison in 2007.

Bakalla, who kept his confession to the murders secret for more than nine years, said she and Degorski were "inseparable" for years even after the murders and that she still cares deeply for him.

Her affection for Degorski was evident not only in her testimony but also in her attempts to catch his gaze while attorneys conferred at the side of the courtroom.

She wiped tears from her eyes and sniffled, craning her neck to look at Degorski. He appeared to avoid her.

Bakalla testified that Degorski was wracked with guilt when he confessed to her as they drove past the restaurant just hours after the murders.

"He had tears in his eyes," she said.

"He said he couldn't believe something like that had happened. I can't even explain to you the pity he felt on his face about what had happened that night and what he'd gotten forced into."

Moments earlier, Bakalla had tried to blame Luna for the murders, but jurors never heard that.

Prosecutors had objected as she began to testify about her view of Degorski and his involvement in the murders. Circuit Judge Vincent Gaughan ordered the jurors to leave the courtroom while attorneys argued about whether she should be allowed to give her opinion.

Outside the jury's presence, Bakalla told the judge she believed Degorski was forced to commit the murders by Luna. "He would not have taken anybody's life," she told the judge. "If anything, he would have tried to stop it. But if somebody holds a gun and says shoot someone, what do you do?"